Captaincy-General of Chile

The Captaincy-General of Chile (1541-1818) was a colony of the Spanish Empire until the First Republic of Chile declared its independence in 1818 and seceded from New Spain. Its last governor was Field Marshal Francisco Marco del Pont, who was deposed after the Battle of Chacabuco.

History
The Captaincy-General of Chile was created in 1541 after the conquest of the land from the Mapuche indigenous tribes. Chile was a colony of the Spanish Empire as a part of the collective New Spain territory (which included all of Spanish America). For years the Mapuche and Spanish fought, but they eventually became allies of Spain and were permitted to live in the south of the continent of South America.

In 1810 the First Republic of Chile was formed during the South American Wars of Independence and it was put down in the Chilean Civil War of 1814. Independence leader Bernardo O'Higgins was forced to flee to independent Argentina, where the rebels had been fighting with mixed success, and in 1817, with the aid of Argentine revolutionary Jose de San Martin, the rebels liberated Chile after the Battle of Chacabuco. The rest of Chile was conquered by 1818, when Chile gained independence. The last Spanish strongholds were picked off by Chilean forces, and in 1826 the Chiloe Archipelago fell to the Chileans.